To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harrassed, hunted down, abused, Clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed, and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.
P-J PROUDHON

This December Olympia hosts the Counter Terror World exhibition. Despite the name this isn’t some cosy get-together where the security services of the world mingle and discuss, over port and Stilton, the best ways to keep people safe from being blown up. Instead, it’s where the security and police forces of the world gather to better learn how to keep tabs on their populations. New improved surveillance equipment will be on display, as will software for sifting through the flood of intelligence governments receive from tapping phone lines, opening letters and reading emails. And it’s certainly possible that innovative technology to inflict pain will be on show – after all, this exhibition caters for all those governments united in the ‘War on Terror’, a war, rather, on their own populations.

Among the guests prominent at this foul gathering will be an extensive Israeli delegation, here – no doubt – to share their knowledge of keeping the Palestinians down through their murderous raids and repression, not to mention the lessons they’ve learned from their campaign in Lebanon. Representatives of many regimes with blemished reputations will be there, eager to learn from Israeli experiences. And not only to learn but also to buy equipment ostensibly to use against the small numbers of Muslim terrorists but far more likely to be used against people armed solely with ideas and without guns and bombs.

This exhibition deserves a response – a concrete response – from Londoners. The techniques shared at private seminars at this exhibition, the equipment sold (and, due to government policy, largely paid for by us) and the networks formed will all be used against us, in this country, or others in the same boat as us abroad.



Join Us To Smash The Big Brother Exhibition Tuesday 5 December 1pm!